The Day After:

It’s March 18^th and many out there are probably feeling the pain of too many green beers, 261 years ago, the Crown and Thistle Tavern was the site of the first celebration of St. Patrick’s Day in New York City in 1756, which probably led to the first annual day after St. Patrick’s Day hangover of March 18, for those who indulge too much. For more history about St Paddy’s Day go here.

Frozen Dead Guy:

If you wanted to catch up on some of your quality fun time, “Frozen Dead Guy Days,” in Nederland, CO, with events like the frozen salmon toss, coffin races, and a polar plunge would have been an excellent choice last week. If you’re worried that you missed it, don’t, it’s an annual event, so you can start planning for next year now.

The guest of honor originally hails from Norway; he is Bredo Morstoel a cryogenically frozen man who is kept on ice with the hope that he can be resuscitated at some point in time, and luckily for Bredo he is grandfathered in with the regards to Section 7-34 of the municipal code proscribing the storage of bodies.

If you want to start making your plans for next year, or learn more about the festival, this would be a good place to start.

Getting The Boot:

The boot, thimble, and my personal favorite, the wheel barrow will no longer be a part of Monopoly, they are to be replaced with a rubber ducky, a penguin, and a T-Rex. The new line up was put to a vote and over 4.3 million people from 146 countries chose from 64 contenders. The Scottish Terrier squeaked out a first place victory over the T-Rex, while the battleship was the last to make it, just ahead of the tortoise, which didn’t.

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire:

In a story that has both a little irony and a little bit of humor directed at one of the most favored professions to poke fun of, Stephen Gutierrez had just started to present his closing arguments to the jury in defense of his client, when he had to rush from  the courtroom with smoke billowing from his right pocket—insert lawyer joke here—which had just burst into flame. He returned a little while later with a singed pocket, but unharmed.

He was representing Claudy Charles who was being prosecuted for arson, and stood accused of setting his own  car on fire. Once the trial reconvened he was eventually found guilty of second degree arson.

It Ain’t All Bad News:

Matthew, Elsa, and their family performed a frantic search when they noticed that the youngest, their twenty-two month old son named Matty was missing and had wandered off, every parent’s nightmare. Matty was lifeless when they had found him in their neighbors pond, “He was dead. He was blue and dead,” Matthew said. 911 was called, Elsa began doing chest compressions, and the other children fell to their knees and began begging god for a miracle.

The sheriff took Matty to St. Alphonsus in Baker City, managing to beat a train en route. Neither his blood work, or minimal vital signs were encouraging. Matthew said the doctors, “…painted the story of a dead child.” Elsa then flew with Matty to the St. Alphonsus Hospital in Boise, “They told us his chances were terrible. I could tell by their faces.”  Matty was then transferred to St. Luke’s Children Hospital, where they performed an MRI to determine the level of brain damage had occurred, and surprisingly the results were normal, and Matty is just fine.

People inundate God with pleas for miracles every day, and sometimes the answer is yes.

The WaterCooler is an open thread, so ease on up, wet your whistle, and speak your piece.